Have you ever been told that you were good at something but not good enough to make it a career or life ambition? Especially with music, if you're passion is music you are hopelessly outnumbered right from the beginning. "You better have a back-up job" or "Don't put all your eggs in one basket" are common refrains heard from well meaning adults who inadvertently had their dreams crushed out of them.

The world has more then enough computer programmers and engineers and these professions are well paying ones. What are we musicians to do? Well, for one thing we can forget about needing "talent" to make it. What is talent anyway but a person's ability to connect with his or her audience. You might think that talent means technical proficiency. You couldn't be more wrong.

Here's the good news. Connect with yourself and your art and you automatically become talented. This means you don't have to wait years and years before you begin to share what comes out of you with others. In fact, most so called "really talented people" last in the limelight for a few years or so and then burn out to non-remembrance. If you consider yourself hopelessly untalented you are focusing on the wrong problem.

The question isn't do you know enough. The real question is, are you confident enough to believe in your own abilities. If you do, you will go far. If not, there's not much hope. Those who are able to let go and connect with the music inside of them are already truly talented.

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music's online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/piano_lessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!